Hyderabad: Telangana finance minister T. Harish Rao on Monday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over rising fuel prices and the three contentious farm laws, and questioned the Centre’s on its development works in the country.
The finance minister, while addressing a public meeting in the Huzurabad assembly seat, assured people that the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) would work towards infrastructure development in the constituency. He added that the TRS’s candidate Gellu Srinivas Yadav will emerge victorious, and emphasised on the welfare and development schemes initiated by the state government. “Those initiatives have led to the development and progress of Telangana,” he added.
Harish Rao, who is seen as chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s (KCR) right hand man, went on to say that the TRS has constructed over 4,000 houses in three different districts of Telangana. “The Centre hasn’t done enough to help the states in times of crisis. AP chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has not been able to control the coal shortage situation even after writing to the central government. He is responsible for the power crises in the neighbouring state,” said the finance minister.
Addressing the public event at Ranagapur in the run up to the Huzurabad bypoll which be held on October 30, Harish Rao also cautioned the public against the BJP’s “tactics”. He stated, “BJP leaders would come and speak about a lot of things. They will show (state government’s) works as their own achievements, but we need to be careful while voting. We have initiated the Kalyana Lakshami and Dalit Bandhu schemes, which will ensure the development of people in the near future. So please consider the hard work put in by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.”
In the upcoming by-election, the TRS will face-off against Eatala Rajender, a former aide of KCR, who was sacked from the state cabinet by the chief minister on allegations of land-grabbing. From the Congress, its student wing’s (NSUI) chief Venkat Balmoor will be contesting.